Universal Laser Systems VLS2.30 User Manual Download

Page: 43 / 99

Manual Printer Driver Interface Tab (advanced users)

This  tab  of  the  printer  driver  is  for  the  advanced  user  and
allows  the  user  to  manually  configure  all  laser  job  settings.
This approach allows the user much more configurability, but
requires  a  deeper  knowledge  of  the  laser  job  settings  and
how they affect laser processing. Please note that when this
tab  is  used  laser  settings  are  applied  to  the  graphic  being
printed by color and each color can contain raster and vector
data. There are eight colors available to which you can assign
laser  power  and  processing  speed  setting.  Elements  in  the
graphic  are  interpreted  as  vectors  only  if  their  line  thickness
is .001 (.0254 mm) or less. All other elements in the graphic
will be treated as raster objects. Laser power and processing
speed  settings  are  then  assigned  to  the  raster  and  vector
objects by color. Any objects which have a color that does not
map directly into a color in the driver table will be matched to the nearest color. Any multicolor objects, such as
grayscale  or  color  bitmaps,  will  have  a  black  and  white  dither  pattern  applied  and  will  be  mapped  to  the  black
power and speed settings. Order of execution when using the manual driver tab proceeds down the color table
from top to bottom with all raster objects being completed first, then vector objects follow.

A useful feature of the dual materials and manual tabs is the ability to select a material in the materials driver and
then switch over to the manual tab. When you do this the settings stored in the materials database for the material
selected will be transferred to the manual tab, including the laser power and processing speeds for rasters and
vectors which will transfer to the black, red and blue colors in the color table.

The various controls in the Manual Printer Driver Interface Tab are explained below:

Color table

The color table contains a list of all of the job settings that are tied to colors in the graphic being printed. To
change job settings for color, select that color so it is highlighted, then use the controls to the right of the color
table to change the desired settings. It is possible to highlight more than one color at a time and the changes
will be applied to all the highlighted colors.

Color Order (Order of Execution)

You can change the order of the colors in the color table by dragging the color up or down the list in the
table. This will change the order of execution of objects in those colors. You can only change color order
when first printing a job. After printing the job to the UCP the color order becomes fixed for that job.

% Power

The Power setting allows you to select the laser power level to be applied from 0 to 100%. This setting is
directly related to how deep the cutting or engraving will be. The higher the setting, the deeper it engraves
or cuts, and vice-versa. Power essentially determines the duty cycle of each laser pulse in the job. Laser
pulse frequency is controlled by the PPI setting for vectors and by the image density selected for rasters
(image densities 5 and below fix pulses at 500 PPI and image densities 6 and 7 fix pulses at 1000 PPI).